


Breeze

by chan_to_the_ho (curseofpandora)



Category: 2PM (Band)
Genre: F/M, Inception AU, M/M, Unreal2PM writing challenge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-21
Updated: 2015-10-22
Packaged: 2018-04-27 08:52:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5041921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/curseofpandora/pseuds/chan_to_the_ho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mission brought them together.</p><p>But what happens when this encounter turns their entire world upside down?</p><p>What happens when a complete stranger steps into your head?</p><p>Can you trust him?</p><p>Can he become the remedy you needed so desperately?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: In a feverish dream

**Author's Note:**

> For this round of the challenge, we got a film and had to put the character/pairing assigned to us into said AU.  
> Mine is based on Inception and written from Junho's perspective.

Junho had never really questioned the way he had been brought up until that one fateful day.

His parents were a pair of scientists who had focused on dreams and the spark had jumped to him at an early age.

He was very keen on telling them about his dreams ever since he was able to form simple sentences and that’s how they realised that his imagination was outstanding compared to most children at his age. They fuelled it by reading to him and giving him the opportunity to visit their own dreams as well.

When he was three years old, they tried to explore one of his dreams for the first time. Junho led them through it as if it was nothing as if he was in complete control of every single thing. They were amazed by his abilities already, but when he changed the entire dreamscape without so much as breaking a sweat from one minute to the next, they were actually speechless.

Starting from this day they began to experiment on his psyche and the way a person was able to influence their dreams. Junho had been a natural at lucid dreaming without being aware of it. But when they told him about it, he got even better at it.

Together they went as far as to explore the deeper levels of dreaming on a huge scale and even succeeded in creating a dreamscape that was constantly evolving and had a linear time flow. The time they spent in there didn’t equal the time in the real world, though. It passed much slower in reality.

As for Junho, he was still very curious about their research, so he didn’t question the way they played with his mind. But he began to wonder what it was that made him so different and why he seemed to be the only one among his peers to have these abilities.

He was never much of a people person, too afraid of showing his true self to others because he felt like they wouldn’t understand him and judge him for being different. Therefore, he didn’t really talk to the other kids in kindergarten or later on in school. Instead, he created a dreamscape of his own, a place deep in the forest where eternal summer reigned and all kinds of mythical creatures kept him company.

Junho never showed this place to his parents, not willing to share this part of his mind with anyone else. He considered the creatures in there his friends and didn’t want them to come to harm. He had witnessed too many of his dreamscapes be destroyed or at least gravely altered by his parents’ research and could not bear to see his most precious one face the same fate.

So he kept this one to himself, only visiting it when no one was around.

But with the years that passed and the memories that were altered, Junho grew more reluctant to comply to his parents’ every wish. He didn’t want them to meddle with his head anymore and he told them about his wish.

At first they gave in, but rather soon they pleaded with him to allow them just one more experiment and in the end it turned into many more. Until one day when he simply refused them and left the room in anger.

Later that evening when they had called him for supper, he appeared reluctantly. He had felt guilty all afternoon, thinking about how vital he was for his parents’ research and how much of a hassle it must have been for them to work without him.

He remained silent throughout the dinner, only speaking to them if asked, his eyes downcast for the rest of the time. They were irritatingly silent as well, only exchanging some glances here or there until his father brought in the pudding.

They gave him the biggest portion along with an apology for asking all of this from him.

But somehow Junho felt alerted by it, suddenly feeling as if there was a deeper meaning to this gesture. Then again, he told himself, these were his parents, the people who had given him life and claimed to love him.

So, he felt guilty for doubting them and accepted it with a little smile. He dug in under their watchful eyes, only nodding fervently when his mother asked him if it was tasty.

With a loving ruffle of his hair, she called him her precious boy, but then his vision became blurry and he didn’t remember anything else.

He woke up on one of the reclining chairs, eyes closed, but his mind completely aware of everything. The only problem was that he tried to move and neither his eyes, nor his mouth, nor his limbs responded. He was close to freaking out when he heard his father’s voice:

“His brain activity is up to the normal standards. Do you really think we should do this?”

“You know that he doesn’t want us to continue this anymore and you know just as much as I do that without him all these years of research will be pointless. He won’t even remember being against these experiments, darling. If only we can deceive his subconscious to believe that he never wanted to give up on this…”

“But he’s our son. We should respect his decision…”

“Jinyoung, he’s not just our son. He is a genius and with his help we can revolutionise dream science. It’s his duty to make use of this gift. He will be grateful we did this one day.”

More silence while they prepared whatever they were planning.

Junho was trying to figure out what his mother might have meant with her words, but he didn’t really recall anything that could make him change his mind the way she wanted him to. Unless… But no, she wouldn’t do that, would she?

They had tried it a couple of times on each other, but never really succeeded apart from that one time when she successfully turned his father’s disgust for fish into downright love.

But that had only been a minor adjustment of his eating habits.

What they intended to do now was never going to work, not with him being aware of it and fighting against it.

It was a couple of minutes later that he felt a cold liquid run into his veins, pulling him under again. Soon enough he found himself inside their usual dreamscape, just waking up in his bed.

They were there, knocking on his door, walking in with a cake in their arms, singing Happy Birthday.

But it felt wrong, everything about this scene felt entirely wrong. He knew that something was amiss and soon enough he realised what it was. Their smiles were just as fake as the love they claimed to hold for him.

His subconscious was practically screaming for him to wake up and get out, but he couldn’t. The sedation was just too strong. So he played along, making them believe that he was willingly accepting everything.

There came a point when they believed him just enough to grow reckless and leave him alone for a few minutes.

Junho had spotted the fae who usually resided in his sanctuary at the edge of his vision for a while now. They had been there ever since he woke up in this dream, but his parents apparently failed to see them and he was glad about it.

These few minutes in which he was left alone were what saved him in the end, since the fae suddenly turned livid and attacked his parents, giving Junho the chance to trap their minds in the very same mental cage they had been working on all these years.

With their minds no longer keeping him in the dream, he could resurface from the sedation through killing himself. He had learnt a long time ago that a quick and painless death was the best way out of any dreamscape in a case of emergency.

So he did what needed to be done and jumped out of the window without a second thought.

He came to in the real world, heart beating in his throat, and only one goal on his mind. He needed to destroy this research, everything they had done to him and everything that kept them from loving him as just their child.

He grabbed whatever he could carry and dragged it into the garden, dumping it in the fire pit, running back in to get every last bit he could find and set fire to the hated papers and notebooks, chemicals and things that had separated him from his parents.

The flames burst into the evening sky, their tongues licking at the stars, reaching out for everything they could grab a hold of. Devoured everything greedily and reached for so much more than he could give them. Eventually, the fire grew so much that a couple of sparks landed on the roof and some dry grass, setting everything ablaze in no time, leaving him helpless.

He watched in horror how the house caught fire, only realising then that his parents were still inside, down in the basement that wasn’t fireproof. He ran in as soon as he recalled that, only to be faced with a wall of fire in the hallway. He remembered what his father had taught him, to get his clothes wet and cover his mouth not to breathe in the smoke.

Then he jumped over the burning debris of what had been the interior of the house he grew up in only a couple of minutes ago, trying desperately to reach his parents and get them out.

He didn’t care about the sparks that burnt his skin and the heat that made it nearly impossible to breathe. All he wanted was to get them out, but he couldn’t reach them because the ceiling had started to come down and heavy beams were lying everywhere, threatening to bury him beneath them.

And still he kept going, calling their names in a futile attempt to wake them up, almost being buried beneath burning curtains. He started to cry, slowly realising that he wouldn’t be able to get them out, but just at that moment someone grabbed him from behind and dragged him away from them.

He screamed that his parents were still inside, begged the person who was carrying him out to save them as well, but they walked onwards, finally walking through the door and handing Junho over to someone else who carried him into an ambulance to take care of his wounds.

Junho kept on begging them to look for his parents in the basement and the doctor nodded and said they’d try everything in their power to find them.

But in the end there was nothing to be saved but two burnt corpses. A neighbour had taken care of Junho after his emergency treatment and told the police that there were no next of kin left. She said he could stay with her family until the authorities had decided what should happen with the boy.

He was traumatised by the events, plagued by nightmares and unable to control his dreams anymore. Every night he woke up screaming, haunted by the images of his burnt parents trying to hug him and continuing their experiments with him.

The authorities had put him into a foster home at first, but whenever a family had decided to take him in, they reconsidered their decision soon after, realising how broken he really was.

He kept on wandering between foster homes and families until he was of age and received the money he had inherited from his parents. This way he was finally able to live on his own, eventually rediscovering his interest in dream science, even if it had been tainted by the events that happened years ago.

Junho picked up his studies again, using his abilities to advance much more than his parents had ever been able to. Eventually, he came up with a method to seal away certain parts of a person’s memories and did just that with all the bad memories he had of his childhood, altering those that he couldn’t seal away to a degree where they became bearable.

His cautiousness had kept him from sealing away everything at once, but after a few relatively peaceful nights full of normal dreams he had decided to seal away the most painful ones, too.

During the process he had realised that memories that left a bigger emotional impact were much harder to seal away and keep contained, so he built a mental maze, having different rooms with more and more seals on them. At the center of this maze, he had placed the room in which the most painful memories were laid to rest.

This room was surrounded by another room containing less painful memories and protected by multiple triggers he needed to recall to gain access to it.

Inside the center room, he held the funeral for the final memory of his parents. He put their bodies into a glass coffin, sealing it multiple times, staring at them in fear when they came back to life and tried to get out.

But it was futile, so he sealed the room afterwards, feeling more at peace with every lock he put on the memory, eventually forgetting enough about the actual events to be able to live a relatively normal life again.

He was, however, never able to let go of his heritage, so he ended up using his skills to make a living, researching whenever he got around to it and providing his alteration and dreamscaping abilities to whoever gave him the best reason to work for them.

Apart from that, there was one more constant in his unstable and ever changing life. He never gave up his personal sanctuary inside his head, keeping the fae with him at all times, because they were the only ones he could ever really trust.

 


	2. Act I: Exposition

They had met through a mission, something only a handful of people had been involved with because it was labelled top secret by their client. Their first meeting had been difficult since one of them had been on the team already and the other one had been added without asking the team before.

Junho was quite a hothead, not the most easygoing man out there and certainly a force to reckon with once he was pissed. But apart from that he was a genius at creating dreamscapes and, therefore, a welcome addition to the group.

The team’s former dreamscapist had been forced to leave for reasons Junho hadn’t been told about, but when he dared to ask about it in their first group meeting, he had faced a wall of uncomfortable silence.

His team leader had taken him aside afterwards and told him that these questions better remained unasked. Naturally, this had only heightened Junho’s curiosity immensely, but he decided to wait for the right moment to ask someone in private.

Since he wasn’t used to working with the rest of the team yet, he had been given special training lessons with the group’s extractor, someone who appeared to be very quiet and uptight at first.

Junho wasn’t particularly thrilled to have to train with him in private, but he agreed to it in favour of the mission. When Minjun told him about his private lessons, though, he made sure to warn Junho not to get attached.

The dreamscapist wasn’t exactly sure what he had meant by that, but he nodded and shoved this warning into a corner of his mind afterwards.

He had seen the extractor during their group meeting, but the guy hadn’t exactly been talkative and therefore, Junho hadn’t gotten the best impression of him.

But he wasn’t one to judge people harshly based on the first impression he had gotten of them, so he decided to give him another chance.

They met a week after their group meeting, the guy already waiting for Junho in their headquarters. When Junho entered the room, the other man wasn’t even paying him attention, but reading through some sheets of paper that he put away as soon as Junho had cleared his throat.

“Finally…”

The sigh and relatively annoyed tone he used brushed the dreamscapist entirely the wrong way, but he tried to keep his cool and reached out for the guy’s hand instead.

“I’m Junho.”

“I know. Minjun told us everything we need to know about you.” Words spoken with an unnecessary amount of hostility, but Junho still didn’t feel like giving up.

“Alright, nice to meet you, too, Nemo. Now, while you seem to know quite a lot about me, I don’t have any idea who you are. Care to enlighten me, or are we going to remain strangers?”

The extractor raised his brow at the unexpected response but didn’t reach out to shake his hand or anything.

“There is no need for you to know who I am. Besides, I don’t think the team will remain like this for very long. I doubt you can live up to the expectations we have.”

Okay, there was a limit to how much doubt in his abilities Junho could take, and this man had just exceeded it.

“Alright, listen. I am not asking you to be friends with me. But can you at least try to be professional and not put me off before you’ve actually seen my abilities? Is that too much to ask?”

This was the first time Junho saw an actual smile on the other guy’s face, but it should certainly not be the last.

“Oh, so you think you have it in you? Fine, I’ll give you a chance. If you fail to impress me, you’re out. We have no time to waste with wannabes.”

If anything, the dreamscapist was even more on fire than he had been before, so he nodded with certainty and gestured towards the loungers.

The extractor made a call then and a couple of minutes later the pharmacologist arrived.

He greeted the extractor with a nod and a playful smirk on his lips. “You decided to give the kid a chance, I see. Well, I can’t say I’m not looking forward to this, so good luck, Junho. You will need it.”

The guy was tall and would have looked menacing if it wasn’t for his silly grin and the mischievous look in his eyes. But Junho was thankful not to have another uptight one to impress, so he nodded his thanks accompanied by an unsure smile.

“That doesn’t exactly give me hope, but thanks anyway…”

“Taec, or Taecyeon. I actually prefer the short form, though. And did he honestly not tell you our names? Such a secretive old fellow, that Minjun. Well, I trust you know who you’re going to share this dream with, at least?”

Junho shook his head and threw a quick glance in the extractor’s direction. “Nope. But since he refused to tell me, I resorted to calling him Nemo. So, we’re good, I guess.”

At the mention of the extractor’s newly acquired nickname, Taec all but burst out laughing and took a couple of minutes to regain his composure, while the other two stared at him in different stages of disbelief.

Junho was mildly amused even and threw the extractor a glance that said ‘It’s your own fault that you became the butt of this joke, pal.’ along with a shrug of his shoulders. And much to his surprise the extractor rolled his eyes in response and might have displayed the hint of a pout for the fraction of a second, but it could have been a trick of the light just as well.

They remained silent until Taec cleared his throat, though, in an attempt to keep a straight face and to hide his obvious grin.

“Alright, kids. Let’s focus again… So, how long do you two need to be alone?” His suggestive wink didn’t exactly help with the tension that was already building anyway, so Junho decided to cut it short.

“This is just meant to be a quick impression of my abilities, right? So, I guess a couple of minutes should suffice.”

“Absolutely. Let’s do this before we turn grey.”

Junho gave the extractor another remotely pissed glance and took a seat then.


	3. Act II: Buildup

They woke up in the ruins of a cathedral overgrown with plants and flooded with rays of light that broke in the coloured windows.

The extractor was speechless at first, probably taken aback by the beautiful scene that lay before his eyes. Or so Junho assumed since the man didn’t say a word for a while.

The dreamscapist used this silence to admire the view in awe, remembering the time when he had actually been standing in this place in reality, wondering how nature and man-made creation could mix in such perfect harmony.

He only turned around to see what the other man was doing when he heard his footsteps disappearing in the distance.

The extractor had walked over to what might have been an altar years ago. On it lay the remnants of a statue, the crumbs of marble strewn everywhere, some vines twisting around the stone as if they had been strangling the figure to death until it gave in and broke apart.

It was a sad sight, but somehow Junho couldn’t help but stare at it and wonder how it came to be.

The extractor might have asked himself the very same question, apparently so lost in thought that he shied back for a second when Junho touched his shoulder.

“Hey, I just want to show you something, follow me, please.”

The taller man looked at him strangely before he shook his head as if to clear it, eventually turning around again and waiting for Junho to lead the way.

The dreamscapist did just that, treading his way through the cathedral with sure steps until they reached the portal and stepped right onto the roof of a building from which they had a perfect view of the sun setting over Seoul.

If the cathedral had been amazing, the city was simply mesmerising, leaving the extractor staring at it speechlessly, his mouth agape.

Junho had expected as much, but he couldn’t hold back a proud smile anyway. “So, what do you think?”

He had stepped onto the ledge, a strong wind tearing at his clothes and hair when he leaned over to spot the hundreds of people in the streets beneath them. Junho knew that he had nothing to fear, since he was the creator of this dreamscape, but the extractor was there anyway, pulling him back down with a little too much force.

Junho lost his balance and stumbled helplessly, searching for something to grab a hold of, so he ended up clinging to the extractor’s jacket, but pushed himself off of him as soon as he had stabilised himself once more.

“Sorry, but there was no need to pull me back… Even if I were to fall, I would only wake up in our reality again.” He had avoided the extractor’s eyes, trying to get rid of the blush that tinged his cheeks due to the unexpected proximity, but to no avail.

The extractor, however, was still staring at the ledge, his eyes glued to a certain spot as if he had seen a ghost.

When Junho dared to look at him again, he noticed this look and couldn’t help but be slightly concerned. “Hey, Nemo. I’m fine, it’s okay. Nothing happened.” he reassured the other while waving his hand in front of the extractor’s face to get him out of his stupor.

He stared at Junho as if he saw him for the first time, but then Junho saw the realisation dawn in his eyes, ere he felt his hands push them further apart again.

The extractor shook his head a little, his eyes everywhere but on Junho when he apologised. “I’m sorry. Just don’t do this again, okay? And it’s Chansung. So stop calling me Nemo...”

Junho couldn’t get rid of the concern entirely, but the surprising revelation helped take his mind off of it for a while. “Chansung? Well, nice to meet you at last, Chansung. It’s quite a pity that I’ll have to stop calling you Nemo, though, but I guess I’ll get used to it. So… back to my initial question. What do you think? Or do you need another scene to decide?”

Chansung looked up at him in irritation, not exactly making the connection apparently.

“Pardon?”

The dreamscapist flashed him a smile then and tried once more: “Did you decide about my ability to create an appropriate dreamscape yet, or shall I show you another one?”

The extractor took a glance around, but when his eyes met Junho’s again, it was clear that he hadn’t decided yet.

So they went back through the door they had come through and entered a room so wide that neither of them could see the opposing walls at first.

The lights were relatively dim, but when they looked down, it was obvious that they were no longer in a normal city.

The ground was made of metal and covered in intricate carvings. Alien looking letters perhaps, maybe just ornaments, there was no way to be sure. But they walked onwards, slowly crossing the room and figuring out what the walls were actually covered with.  

There were control panels, tiny screens and blinking lights, some empty capsules that were big enough to hold grown up humans and some strange apertures that might have been used for experiments Junho didn’t feel like thinking about.

Even if he was the creator, he never stopped being surprised by the details his subconscious came up with, much less in a scene like this, something he had entirely conjured from his imagination alone.

Chansung seemed to be just as speechless as he was, looking around with curiosity and maybe even a little bit of fear. Then he looked at Junho and his eyes widened even more which in turn made Junho look down at his body, only to realise that he wasn’t wearing the clothes he had been wearing before.

Instead of it, his body was covered in scales. They were sharp and colourful and he was freaking out for a second until he looked at Chansung again, now noticing that his clothes were also gone and similar scales were covering his body as well.

They stared at each other for a while until Chansung opened his mouth to speak, but only hissing noises came out. He grabbed his throat in shock, his eyes seeking Junho’s for help, but the dreamscapist had no idea what was happening either.

But he knew that the only thing he could do was get them out of this scenario, back into something closer to their own world. And so he grabbed Chansung’s claw and pulled him back towards the door in a hurry.

He felt the stone-like scales in his own claw soften and regain warmth as they went through the passage, Chansung’s nails suddenly burying themselves in the soft skin of Junho’s hand in fear.

The dreamscapist couldn’t care less where they had ended up, so he pulled him onwards until the man behind him simply refused to move and Junho stumbled due to the unexpected resistance.

He stopped and turned around, only to see how Chansung stared at something behind him, his jaw dropped and eyes wide like saucers.

Then there was the screech. A sound so frightening that you could feel the fear creep deeply into your bones. Junho didn’t dare to turn around, but he didn’t need to since Chansung had broken out of his paralysis and started pulling him back to the passage as if their life depended on it.

When they passed through it, Junho felt a sudden shift in the dream, the dynamics between them changing slightly but noticeably. His skin prickled as he ran into the new scenario, a safe sign that they were no longer in something he had come up with, but something Chansung had conjured.

He had no time to take a look around, though, until the extractor stopped in his tracks and twisted around on the spot, grabbing him by the collar and pulling him closer until their noses were almost touching.

Junho was too shocked to fight back, so he was staring into Chansung’s eyes with fear while the latter had furrowed his brows in anger.

“Are you trying to get us killed?! What the fuck where the last two scenarios?! That thing that was following us just now…”

All the energy had left Chansung’s voice when he had finished his sentence, his grip on Junho’s collar loosening slowly, but his eyes still wild and full of panic.

And as much as Junho would have wanted to tease him for it, he simply couldn’t. Not when the other was still so on edge. That’s why he put his arms around the taller man, loosely hugging him which caused general confusion in both of them.

Chansung went still, not even breathing until Junho started rubbing tiny circles on his back. This made him push the dreamscapist away with fervour.

“Can you stop messing with my head for a second, Junho?!” He looked confused and angry, pacing up and down in front of the unmoving figure of the dreamscapist who was watching him intently, not daring to speak a word because he had noticed how their surroundings started falling apart, buildings crumbling down and cracks showing up in the asphalt beneath their feet.

It would be dangerous to stay here until Chansung’s mind was back in order, so Junho walked over to another door and held it open.

“Chansung, I’m sorry for the mess, but please follow me into a safer scene, okay?”

The extractor hesitated, but with a look around he realised that Junho was right, so he stepped through the passage cautiously and found himself in a forest, soft grass beneath his naked feet and rays of sunlight tickling his face through the branches.

Junho was close behind him, humming a melody that relaxed the extractor much to his own surprise. The dreamscapist had sat down against the trunk of a tree, his feet playing with the grass while his eyes were shut.

The melody still hung in the air, but out of the blue there were more voices humming it, voices so barely audible that you could have mistaken them for a figment of your imagination, but they were clearly there, coming from every direction and at some point it seemed that even the soft rustling of the leaves and blades of grass joined in.

It sounded like a symphony of nature and there was no way anyone could have resisted its calming effect. Chansung felt so intrigued that he sat down as well and shut his eyes to listen more closely.

A few minutes later there were sounds of fluttering close to their heads, so Junho opened his eyes slowly, attempting not to spook the tiny creatures. They were looking at him curiously and he smiled when he saw another bunch of them near his companion, too.

The extractor, however, was still unaware of their presence, so Junho raised his voice a little when he called for Chansung to open his eyes.

The taller man did as he was asked and gasped in surprise when he spotted them. But they didn’t look hostile, so he relaxed soon after and even held out his hand for them to land on.

Junho followed this interaction intently, grinning when one of the fae landed on Chansung’s hand and walked up his arm. She whispered something into his ear and his face lit up with a genuine smile afterwards.

“Really?” She nodded and flew away then while Chansung focused on Junho.

“She told me something very interesting just now. You seem to come here quite often? In fact ever since you were a child?”

Junho’s face froze for a second, but then he nodded slowly. “Yes, this is somewhat of my sanctuary, a place I go to to relax and to find peace in.” He sighed and his eyes were hard when he opened them again to hold Chansung’s gaze.

“Let’s be honest about a few things here, okay? I’m not particularly fond of being added to this operation, but I don’t have a choice. All I want is to get this over with and quit this job. It’s tiresome and I don’t really feel like baring my soul to people like this ever again. But here I am, stuck with you until this mission is over. And I’m sorry I messed up earlier. This wasn’t supposed to happen, but you freaked me out in there and I lost control of my subconscious.”

At this point, Chan held up his hands defensively, trying to slow Junho down. “Wait, wait, wait. Are you telling me that the scales and all weren’t planned?”

Junho shook his head. “No, I only went for something futuristic, my subconscious did the rest on its own. Don’t get me wrong, I have full control of it if I want to. But in this case, I felt like it might be more interesting this way.”

Chansung laughed dryly at this revelation, running a hand through his hair. “Well, interesting is another way to say it… But it was certainly with an amazing attention to detail that you created these scenes with. I’ve only seen a similar level of expertise once before I met you.”

“What happened? You make it sound like it didn’t end well.”

Junho had to tread cautiously now since he had the feeling the other man would shut down completely if he made a mistake.

But Chansung was tired and his state of peace made him oblivious to Junho’s possible scheme. “She was the previous dreamscapist of my team. Someone I had known for years. We had been close friends ever since we were teenagers and since we were practically living in each other’s heads, we were an unbeatable team when it came to our profession.

We fell in love at some point and that’s when it became complicated. She and I had created a world of our own in Limbo, but we reached a point in which she preferred our life in there over the one we had in the real world.

I’ve never been enough of a dreamer to stay in there forever, though, so she made me choose. And as much as I loved her, I couldn’t give up my life here.

She became mad and tried to reason with me, but I refused to agree.

Her response was to destroy the entire world we had created in there afterwards, killing herself along with it.

But when she woke up in the real world, she didn’t recognise me anymore. She had completely erased every memory she had of me and forgotten most of what made her the person I once loved as well.

She had become a complete stranger in the matter of a few hours.

And it broke something in me. I have never forgiven myself for doing this to her. I should have stayed with her, but I was too selfish…”

Junho had been listening patiently, not daring to make a sound, because he was too distraught by the nonchalance Chansung told him his story with.

He had never expected that something so bad might have been the reason he had been called into this team.

Chansung had fallen silent for a while, but he started to laugh humorlessly soon after, his laughing eventually turning into choked sobs as he started to cry. “I wronged her so much and look where it got me. Leaving me with all the memories she forgot, the guilt and worst of all the awareness that I could have made a difference if only I had stayed with her. I didn’t deserve her love. And I don’t deserve to be happy, not after all that I have done…”

That was the moment when Junho had decided to forget their surroundings and the circumstances they had met under. All he knew was that he had to be there for him now. He had to give him a shoulder to cry on, someone who would listen and help Chansung bear the pain he had caused himself.

He didn’t care about the mission any longer. Instead, he had walked over and wrapped his arms around the taller man, stroking his back gently to calm him down. He still didn’t say anything, since he didn’t think he had any right to do so. And there was nothing he could have said anyway. Each word would have been redundant since the mistakes had already been made and now all that was left was to clean up the mess.

Chansung embraced him without a second thought, his face buried in Junho’s chest, his fingers grabbing the back of his jacket so tightly that the seams threatened to rip any second.

They remained like this for what felt like hours, Chan slowly calming down again and feeling as if he had come home. Junho being strong for the man in his arms, acting as the safe haven that he needed so desperately.

Time and space didn’t concern them any longer…

Well, at least until they felt a strange pull and woke up back in the headquarters lying next to each other, eyes staring at the ceiling in disbelief.


	4. Act III: Climax

They never spoke about the events in the dream again.

Chansung acted as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened and Junho was hardly left with any other option than to go along with his approach.

But he wasn’t happy about it. He knew that the problem wouldn’t go away unless Chansung tackled it. And he had a massive problem. That much became clear during their training sessions.

While an extractor wasn’t technically required to be able to create dreamscapes, it was certainly very helpful and much safer in case the actual dreamscapist couldn’t keep the image up any longer.

Everyone who entered the dreamscapes was required to have this ability, but the extractor was the second in line to execute the task if shit really hit the fan.

Now, this would pose a problem in their case since Chansung had trouble building the most basic dreamscapes, let alone keeping them stable. And while the rest of the team didn’t seem to care a lot, Junho was getting more pissed with every second he was exposed to these makeshift dreamscapes.

A lot of this anger might have been caused by his own perfectionism and the pride in his profession, so it felt like a personal insult to witness someone treating what he loved doing most so sloppily.

But the most important reason for his discontent was none other than being forced to watch Chansung bury himself even deeper in his grief.

He was cold and untouchable whenever they were around the other members, but as soon as they were alone in the dream he shut down completely, blocking every attempt at breaking through to him entirely.

Needless to say that Junho was at his wits’ end and torn between resigning from the mission and beating some sense into the extractor.

So he made his final decision one afternoon in a training session that was meant to last longer than they normally did. The time they were supposed to spend in this stage of the dream was a week, therefore, Junho had prepared himself for a lot of cold shoulder treatment to put up with.

Initially, they interacted this way, but two nights in he caught the extractor wandering off to a remote area of their dreamscape that Junho didn’t recognise. As soon as he entered it, he felt a shift again, knowing full well that he was in Chansung’s part of the dream now.

He kept his distance, watching him carefully as the extractor gazed at a little house in the distance. It was summer in here, a warm evening and fireflies were lighting up the scene. There were three persons close to the house, a woman, a little girl and a man…

Junho had to look closer because he couldn’t believe his eyes, but then he was certain. The man was Chansung. Or better a dream version of him, because the one he had come here with was still standing in front of him.

His dream version was lifting the girl and twirling her around, the woman just watching them with glee on her face.

When he put the child down, the woman gave him a kiss while the little one ran off into the house. It felt surreal to watch this because Junho was sure Chansung hadn’t mentioned a daughter before.

“Chan?"

As the extractor turned around, eyes full of anger, so did the dream versions of him and the woman. They stared at him with rancour, all three of them, and Junho felt like running away, but he knew it wouldn’t change a thing. And he was getting tired of it all.

So he did what he should have been doing after the first dream encounter already.

He approached Chansung with sure steps, his posture reflecting confidence and his will to fight. He wouldn’t back down before he had given the extractor a piece of his mind.

“Listen, Chansung, I’ve tolerated this long enough. You’re hurting yourself with this. All the holding back of emotions and bottling them up. What is gone is gone, it’s about time you let go and get over it. And I am well aware that I have absolutely no right to interfere, nor any obligation to do so. But for reasons beyond my understanding I’ve grown fond of you.

I can’t and won’t watch you destroy yourself any longer. And I refuse to give up on trying to pull you out of your misery, even if it kills me. Even if _you_ kill me. I will not back down, do you hear me?!”

Chansung just shook his head, not willing to hear any of this, his eyes squeezed shut and hands covering his ears.

But Junho wouldn’t have it, so he closed the distance between them, gently taking Chansung’s face into his hands and making him look into his eyes.

“Don’t run away from it, Channie.

You deserve to be loved and find happiness just as much as any other human being.

Maybe you made a mistake. Well, guess what, we all do.

We mess up and hurt the ones we love, but life goes on.

Relationships break apart, but new ones follow them.

Hopefully, we learn from our mistakes, but maybe we make them a couple of times more before we do. No one is without fault.

And no one should ever demand someone give up everything for them.

She was obsessed with the image you had created, Channie, and failed to realise that you didn’t feel the same way about it.

In the end, she figured out that your bond wasn’t strong enough, but instead of giving you a chance to move on she wanted you to feel guilty.

This is no sign of love, Chansung.

She was possessed by the idea of keeping you for herself, but you were never her possession. No one is ever anyone’s possession and no one should ever be treated as such.

You deserve much better than that, Channie, so much better.”

The last words still hung in the air when Junho rose to the tips of his toes and kissed the taller man’s forehead softly. He looked into Chansung’s eyes afterwards, radiating warmth and comfort, a confident smile lighting up his features.

Chan, however, was simply confused by everything. “Why are you badmouthing her? I loved her…”

In response to this Junho’s brows furrowed in anger for a moment before his expression became neutral again.

“I’m not badmouthing her. And I know you loved her. Perhaps you still love her to some degree. But that’s exactly the reason why you can’t see that she didn’t love you the same way. Her love for you was a destructive force. Eventually, you would have ended up denying yourself for her. You saw what she did to herself just because she wasn’t allowed to have you whole… I’m glad you didn’t comply with her wish. Otherwise, you would have destroyed yourself on the long run..."

"Why do you even care about what happens to me?"

Junho averted his gaze but felt Chansung's burning stare regardless. "I... honestly, I have absolutely no idea why. I just do. Perhaps, because I feel a strange connection between us. I don’t know..."

They didn't say a word for a while, each pondering on the things that had been said.

"I'm sorry."

The unexpected apology made Junho look up again, barely catching Chan's eyes before he looked away.

"What for?"

"You've been trying hard to be kind all the time and yet I treated you like shit. I'm sorry for that. And thank you for trying to help me through this. It's just..."

Junho's face lightened up again, his posture becoming more relaxed and peaceful immediately. "It's hard, I know. But I'm here for you, okay? You're not alone on this path."

Chan gave a curt nod and cast his eyes down. "Thank you, it means a lot to me... and, eh..."

"And?"

"Do you mind..?"

"Come on, just tell me."

"Can you...?" The extractor acted as if he was embracing someone, his cheeks tingeing a lovely shade of pink.

"You want me to hold you?"

Chansung's voice was barely audible as he muttered a simple "Yes." under his breath.

"Sure." Junho just took a step towards the other man and engulfed him in an embrace within a heartbeat. He pulled him close and waited until Chan relaxed to place a tiny kiss on his shoulder. "You'll be okay again, Channie, I'll make sure of that."

The dreamscapist continued to rub the extractor’s back gently for a long while, and as Chansung relaxed even more, he nuzzled Junho’s neck a little, resting his chin on the smaller man’s shoulder eventually.

His breath ghosted along Junho’s hairline as he muttered a sincere thank you, giving the smaller man goose flesh in the process.

Junho tried to ignore the tingle of his skin, but when Chansung buried his nose in the crook of his neck and took a deep breath, the dreamscapist grew restless. He wasn’t sure about his own intentions, let alone those of Chansung, so he wanted to avoid giving him the wrong impression.

And he wasn’t even sure of what nature this impression should have been. But when Chan took another breath close to his carotid artery, he froze, losing this train of thought, uncertainty about what to expect grabbing a hold of him.

“You smell nice… fresh and warm, a little salty, like a summer breeze… like home.”

The dreamscapist couldn’t hold back a smile at the strange comparison. “Home smells like a sea breeze to you?”

Chan buried his nose in Junho’s hair again, uttering the response against the soft skin behind his ear. “I grew up by the sea. So yes, it does. You remind me of my childhood, the times when everything was easy and I had no care in the world…” His lips grazed the shell of Junho’s ear as if by accident, but the smaller gave up and turned his head to look the other man in the eye.

“What are you doing, Chansung?” There was no accusation or any other meaning hidden in these words, just plain curiosity and maybe, just maybe Junho might have felt a little daring at this moment, willing to try how far the other man would go.

His response was the flicker of a grin, before Chan’s lips brushed his jawline, placing a butterfly kiss there and more words that didn’t explain anything and everything at the same time.

“I don’t know. But it feels right…”

His cheek was now against Junho’s, skin grazing skin intimately while Junho’s lips were searching for the other man’s tentatively. Their foreheads were moving against each other, gazes connecting in an unspoken agreement, breaths starting to quicken and intermingle.

Their bodies were electrified like the air before an oncoming thunderstorm, craving to release the tension that had slowly built between them. But Chansung didn’t move any further, so Junho had to take the lead in this.

“May I?”

A tiny smirked appeared on Chansung’s lips, his eyes glistening with mischief. “May you what?”

“Eat you for breakfast, of course.” Junho rolled his eyes in addition to the snarky remark and made Chansung smile even wider with it. “Kiss you… I want to kiss you.”

The extractor almost closed the distance, his confident smile still gracing his features. “I’m not holding you back, am I?”

“No.” Junho could almost taste his words.

“Then why are you still hesitating?” He felt Chansung’s hand move upwards, eventually resting at his neck as if it belonged there right from the start.

“I like the tension too much…” But his words were negated the moment he closed the distance and captured Chansung’s lips with a demanding kiss that spoke of how long he had actually waited for this to happen.

Their kisses turned from curious and playful to passionate and all consuming in a matter of minutes, taking their breath away and leaving them craving for so much more than just this simple touch.

Junho tore on Chansung’s clothes while the latter had sent his hands on a journey along Junho’s body, caressing and teasing every bit of skin that he found on the way. The dreamscapist felt as if his skin was on fire, needing to cool down, but too keen on getting closer to the other man to do so.

Normally he wasn’t as fiery, but Chansung had awoken something inside of him that needed to run wild. And so he let it, grabbing the extractor by his hips and pushing him backwards until Chan’s back collided with a tree. He had been ravishing his mouth all the while, now growing much more impatient and aroused.

And Chansung’s only reaction was to smirk into the kiss and pull him even closer, his hands being more daring in their exploration, disappearing under Junho’s shirt and stroking his arousal through his pants.

Junho all but hissed because of the sensation, no longer able to breathe normally. “Chan…” he drawled, biting his bottom lip in anticipation, eyes already glazed over and dark.

The taller man only smiled wider, but his fingers were unzipping Junho’s pants and pushing them down in no time, doing the same to his shirt soon after. He was taken aback by the radiant beauty of the dreamscapist, admiring his appearance like an artist would admire his masterpiece, but Junho couldn’t care less about any of this. All he wanted was to connect with the extractor and explore and taste him in every possible way.

So he made quick work of undressing him and was back in his arms before the extractor had a chance to grasp what had happened. His mind was so preoccupied with Junho that he tuned out the rest of the world entirely, his only goal becoming to please him.

He couldn’t even recall how they had ended up on the ground, Junho on top of him, kissing him feverishly and riding him passionately. But what mattered was the feeling he gave Chansung.

He made him feel whole again, made him forget what was in the past for a fleeting moment. Junho had become the cure to his condition, regardless of how short-lived it might be.

And Chansung was thankful for it, so he responded to Junho’s touch with just as much affection, moving against him as if they had known each other for all their life, as if they were one soul born into two bodies, only now getting a chance to finally become one again.

But neither of them saw it coming. Junho only felt the slender hands wrapping around his neck with an adamant grip, strangling him continuously. His lungs started to burn with the lack of oxygen in them, but ni matter how much he tried to get rid of the hands, he was too weak.

He looked at Chansung with terror in his eyes, pleading for him to do something, anything, but the latter was staring behind Junho as if he was seeing a ghost. “Now now, Channie, how could you replace me so easily? How does it feel to see the one you love die again?”

Her voice sent shivers down Junho’s spine, making him want to break away from her with all his might, but it was to no avail. So, instead of fighting her hold onto his neck, he grabbed onto Chansung’s wrists, burying his nails in the soft skin in an attempt to break his stupor.

It worked long enough to make Chansung realise what was going on and try to help the dreamscapist, but she knew, she already knew what would happen and was just that one vital step ahead of them.

It took only the blink of an eye and Junho felt a sharp burning in his chest. Then, when he tried to look down to see what she had done, he felt another swift motion at his throat before he saw all the red running down his body. The metallic taste in his mouth followed soon after, his vision grew blurry, his limbs no longer reacting to his will.

The last thing he saw before the darkness grabbed a hold of him were Chansung’s eyes, widened in shock, his mouth forming words that might have been his name, but he was no longer able to hear, so he wasn’t sure.


	5. Act IV: Downfall

Junho woke up with a start, his eyes searching the room for a face. But it wasn’t there, the surroundings were changed and all he saw when he stared upwards were lights and the bleak ceiling.

There was a touch on his arm then, so his gaze followed the direction and found the face of someone he wasn’t expecting.

“Taecyeon.”

He looked worried, something that happened only rarely, but Junho had an idea why he looked like this.

“What happened? You were supposed to be in there for longer. And why isn’t Chan back?”

“Chan!” Junho had jumped up, grabbing Taec by his collar and pulling him closer. “We need to get him out of there immediately. He killed me.”

Taec’s eyes widened immensely. “He did what?!”

“He killed me... No, it wasn’t him, it was her. His subconscious guilt took her shape and killed me…It doesn’t matter now! WE HAVE TO GET HIM OUT OF THERE RIGHT NOW, TAECYEON!!!”

Junho was about to have a breakdown, so Taec hurried to set the waking process in motion, but as soon as everything was in place, he spotted the dreamscapist at Chansung’s side, holding his hand and whispering to him.

His eyes were full of panic when he threw a glance at the pharmacologist. “Taec, his pulse is far too weak. She’s trying to pull him into Limbo. Hurry up, we need to stop her!”

 

✵✬✵

 

He was still staring at her in shock. Junho’s dying figure had disappeared along with the blood, but she was still there, her face wearing a grotesque looking smile, her eyes wild and full of hatred.

“I won’t allow you to be happy after all that you’ve done to me, Chansung. Did you honestly think I would stop haunting you for one second? You’re a disgusting piece of crap that doesn’t deserve happiness, so he should be thankful that I spared him the heartbreak. You’re incapable of truly loving someone because you are too selfish. I could have put up with it, but no, you had to reject me and give up everything we had.”

Chan had covered his ears and tried to tune her out, but she walked over and grabbed him by his hair.

“Listen, you bastard, trying not to hear me won’t work, because you know it. You know it in your heart and soul that you are human garbage. There is no denying it.”

 

✵✬✵

 

“Taec, get me back in there, I need to help him, he’s not coming back. Please...” Junho was getting desperate, clinging to Chansung’s hand and trying to shake him out of the dream, but it didn’t work.

The pharmacologist was helpless, though. “I’m sorry Junho. You need to enter together, otherwise I can’t guarantee you will end up in the same dream.”

“Bollocks, sedate me, I will find him!” Junho stared at him angrily, but Taec tried to reason with him.

“Junho, I can’t lose both of you… And he was aware of the risks when he entered.”

The smaller jumped up and grabbed him by his collar again. Their faces were only centimetres apart when he threatened him through gritted teeth: “Don't you dare try to make me believe this crap! Don’t you fucking dare! And if you won’t do it, I will. Taecyeon, I swear, if he gets lost in there because you refused to help me, I will follow you to the edge of the earth and destroy you.”

While Junho didn’t appear very much of a threat normally, Taec felt the earnestness of his words and knew that these weren’t empty threats. So he nodded and set everything up.

“This is on you. I hope you find him, but I will not leave you in there forever. I refuse to have this on my conscience.”

“Fine. Now do it.” With these words, Junho leaned back and drifted away into his dream.

 

✵✬✵

 

He conjured the image he had used last and went to the place where Chan’s scenario had begun, trying to figure out how to connect their dreams. He started calling him at the top of his lungs in an attempt to create a connexion between their brains.

His real self was still holding Chansung’s hand, so he hoped the physical connection would help.

And soon enough there was a flicker in the air, a rift that was opening slowly.

Junho kept calling him, running towards this flicker, passing through it and finding himself back in the scene he had recently died in.

As he spotted them in the distance he started running again, but no matter how fast he ran, the distance remained the same, forcing him to watch from afar how Chansung was cowering on the ground while she hovered over him, whispering malicious things to him.

“Channie, I’m here! Don’t listen to her! She’s just a figment of your imagination! She isn’t real, she can’t hurt you anymore!”

 

✵✬✵

 

He heard a faint voice through her endless string of insults, a voice that reminded him of home, of peace and quiet, of being safe and away from her. And most importantly, a voice that gave him hope.

He dared to look up and search for the source of it, ignoring her continuous attack for a second too long, so she hit him and started kicking him.

Chansung curled into a ball once again, only wishing for it to end, to be wiped from the face of this planet so she would leave him alone. He didn’t want to hurt anyone, never had this been his intention. But it had been inevitable and now he regretted his decision, regretted his entire existence actually because it was what had caused all this.

At some point he didn’t even feel her assault anymore, just felt oblivion taking him into its cold but calming embrace. Slowly he forgot who he was, what he had done, why he was there. The pain went away and along with it everything that made him who he was.

He was almost gone when the assault stopped and made him halt for a moment to see what had happened.

Chansung spotted a woman who looked vaguely familiar being attacked by tiny creatures. Fae maybe? He wasn’t sure what they were called, or who the woman was. Who was he even?

“Chansung!” The name rang a bell. It was his, wasn’t it? Then there were warm arms wrapping around him, holding him tightly and reminding him of something, someone perhaps. A name. It started with J.

Chansung rolled the letter around on his tongue, tasting it, trying to figure out the flavour of the name. Did names even have a flavour? It tasted fresh and a little salty, like the breeze by the sea. It tasted like home, like warmth, like everything he had ever wanted but never been aware of craving.

It tasted like the kiss of a lover. The kiss of his lover. Someone he hadn’t known for long but felt like knowing for all his life already. Someone he had believed lost, but who had come back to him. He had come to find him and save him. He whose name was J…

“Junho…” Chansung’s voice was barely more than a croak when he said it, catching Junho’s attention with it nonetheless.

 

✵✬✵

 

The dreamscapist was staring at him with tears in his eyes but broke out of his stupor soon enough. He crushed the man in his arms in a hug, having trouble to believe he was still there, but apparently he was. Chansung was warm and solid, no longer looking as if he was about to fade into nothing.

“Channie, oh god, I thought I was too late…”

The tears were rolling down his face and onto Chan’s mouth who licked them up curiously.

“They’re salty.”

Junho couldn’t help but laugh at this remark despite the situation they were in.

“I know they are. Tears are supposed to be salty.”

“I like their taste… I missed it. Their taste, your taste. I had almost forgotten about it. I had almost forgotten about you. And myself...”

“Pabo, even if you were to forget about me, I would come after you to remind you. I will always find you, no matter where you are. I’ll be by your side, just as I promised you.”

Then he pressed an affectionate kiss to Chansung’s forehead and caressed his cheek.

“Thank you for being here for me. I was about to give up.” The words were like a stab to his chest, but Junho could understand the reason to some degree.

“It’s okay, Channie, I won’t leave you this time. And now let’s get rid of her, okay? There is a way to lock away the part of your memories that make this guilt take over and gives it such power over you…”

Chan looked at him with wide eyes, disbelief apparent in them. “There is?”

Junho nodded and explained the procedure in detail. “It’s something I developed and researched on before I became part of this operation. The process involves locking the memories in some sort of mental box that can only be opened by a certain trigger. The trigger can be of various natures, like a word, an image, a song, whatever you want it to be. In this case, I would suggest something you won’t recall at random. Just to make sure you don’t open it by accident.”

“I want you to pick it. Don’t tell me about it. You can seal these memories away as well, right?”

Junho was a little thoughtful, because of the suggestion, but in the end he considered it the best option. “Technically yes. As long as I am present during the procedure. In your case, it might actually be better if you don’t know the trigger.”

Chansung nodded in agreement and stood up, looking at her still struggling figure. “Please help me get away from her for good.”

So they prepared it all, Junho adjusting the scene according to his mindset, building clear walls all around her while she fought like a fury against the hold of the fae.

As soon as the walls were in place the tiny figures of the fae vanished and she was left to roam freely. She stalked along the walls like a caged tiger, baring her teeth and hitting the walls in an attempt to break free.

But Junho’s mind was stronger than her futile attempts, so Chansung relaxed slowly, watching her with mixed feelings. He felt bad to do this to her, but he knew she would destroy him otherwise.

Junho didn’t even flinch when Chansung reached for his hand all of a sudden. He was just too concentrated on sealing her away, too eager to stop her from hurting the one he came to care about. He would not allow her to try it again.

“Alright, she’s sealed now. Say goodbye to her if you want to because I’ll hide her soon…”

Chan nodded and stared at her with sadness in his eyes, nodding in her direction just once which made her go wild again, left her kicking and screaming and clawing at the walls. But it was pointless.

The cage vanished into thin air and along with it all the surroundings they had been in. Everything around them was now white, light coming from everywhere and nowhere at once.

Junho sighed and turned towards Chansung then. “Channie, you have to go ahead now. I will hide her away in my subconscious, but you have to be absent in order to keep you from running into her by accident.”

The extractor understood what this meant for him and sighed. “Just do it then. I won’t hold it against you.”

So Junho nodded and got up on his toes to kiss him. “I’m sorry, Chansung…”

When he stepped away from him, Chansung sank to his knees, blood running from the corner of his mouth and more running from the wound in his back. But as he looked at Junho, he smiled, his face showing no hint of fear or worry anymore. “I’ll be waiting for you, Junho.”

“Tell Taec to give me five more minutes, okay?”

Chan nodded once more and faded away soon after, leaving Junho alone in the white.


	6. Act V: Catharsis

He pondered on where to hide her for a while until he had decided for a place that Chansung would never be able to access.

Shrinking her cage with his mind, he rushed through layers and layers of dreams and a multitude of scenarios, finally reaching the part of himself that he had hidden away as well. He knew that putting her in there would be the best, but it required confronting his own skeletons in the closet for one last time.

So he focused once more, gathering all his strength before he opened the door.

As he walked into the room, he spotted all the boxes on the shelves, their walls not stable enough to hold everything in, so he was hit by a sudden surge of memories, each one more devastating than the previous one. But he walked on, reaching another door that was sealed with three locks.

He recalled each trigger to open them, the memories from behind the door already leaking through and digging at him, but he had to enter. He had to finish this for Chansung, come what may.

One deep breath and then he walked in, spotting them in the glass casket that was also sealed. With each lock he opened, a great sadness overcame him, tearing at his sanity and almost making him lose focus of why he was in here. But then he recalled Chansung’s peaceful face and gathered the strength to continue.

When the last lock clicked open he took the cage that contained Chan’s memory and opened the casket to place it between their bodies. He was about to close the lid again when they opened their blind eyes and grabbed his wrist.

“Junho…”

But Junho unclasped his hand and closed the lid with fervour, all the locks clicking shut at once.

“No, I’m not here for you.” Then he turned around without so much as a look back at the figures writhing in the casket, hitting the glass in panic but without a chance to get out.

They were staring at Junho now, tears in their eyes and fear apparent on their features. But Junho walked on, knowing full well that if he looked back now, he would never be able to leave this place.

“I’m sorry…”

The first door clicked shut.

“I’m so, so sorry…”

Then the second door followed.

“Forgive me...”

He started to run, no longer noticing where he ran, as long as it was away from the memories. The scenes passed by in a flash, a blur of colour and scents and everything at once. But he was too exhausted to see or smell or feel. All he wanted was to forget.

All he wanted was to be embraced by the darkness and to leave everything behind. And so he arrived in a room full of blackness. There was no light in here, no scent, no emotions. Just plain darkness.

He sank down and curled into a ball, only whispering one word like a mantra.

“Chansung.”

 

✵✬✵

 

“...Junho! Junho, wake up! Please, wake up, Junho!”

There were hands on his shoulders, shaking him, warmth radiating from them. And the feeling of home. The feeling of safety.

“Chan?” He opened his eyes, getting blinded by the lights, but soon he could make out the shape of the face he had gotten so used to seeing. Chan had tears in his eyes but smiled nonetheless.

“You’re back...” His voices sounded breathy as if he had really feared for him not to return.

“I guess I am, yes… Can you pinch me? Just to make sure I’m not dreaming anymore, I mean.”

Chan’s smile turn wicked for a second, before Junho’s brain registered a sudden spike of pain in his upper arm.

“Ouch! Yup, definitely awake. Did you really need to pinch me so h…” The rest of his sentence was muffled by Chan’s lips gently tasting the dreamscapist’s.

“I was scared you wouldn’t come back to me…” Their foreheads were resting against each other now, eyes closed to bask in the intimate moment a little longer.

“I promised you I would. Don’t you trust me?”

“I trust you with my life.”

“Eh, guys… sorry to disturb the moment, but would someone please tell me what the hell just happened? First Junho wakes up all of a sudden, claiming you had killed him, then he threatens me to bring him back into the dream, then you wake up and tell me to get him out in five minutes. WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON IN THERE?! AND WHY ARE YOU ALL LOVEY-DOVEY?!”

Both cleared their throats in unison, looking at each other while blushing and back at Taec afterwards.

“We had some complications with Chan’s subconscious but got rid of them in the end. The specific details are something that shall remain private, though. And as for the other issue… None of your concern either.”

Junho knew the answer wasn’t what Taec had expected and the latter looked just about ready to murder someone, but Chansung got up and faced him with a stern look in his eyes.

“Don’t even think about speaking what you feel like speaking right now. Both of us have been through enough emotionally exhausting shit for a year. And he’s right, this doesn’t concern you at all.”

“But Channie, he told me you killed him. I mean, can I please be a little concerned?”

Chansung gave him a hug then, patting his back brotherly in the process. “Taec, we appreciate it, okay? But it’s alright now. You can rest assured that the issue got resolved. And I would prefer it if you didn’t tell the others about it.”

“You’re asking a lot from me, Chansung. This could endanger the whole team…”

“I’m asking you as a friend. This is something between Junho and I. And whatever danger there might have been, he got rid of it for us. You should be thankful for that. He really saved me in there.”

Junho watched the scene with a stoic expression, not sure what to say or do, but apparently Chan’s arguments had been convincing enough because Taec nodded and walked back to his screens.

“Alright, I won’t tell them and I won’t ask you about it anymore. But what about the mission?”

Junho exchanged a quick look with Chan before the latter answered: “We’re ready to go. Let’s get this over with.”

 

✵✬✵

 

They finished the mission without any remarkable complications, but once it was over, they had to decide on how to continue.

Junho had been asked to become a permanent member of the team since their chemistry had been brilliant once the rest of the members and he had gotten used to each other. But he declined the offer politely, staying true to his decision to quit this job.

They were somewhat sad and angry. Well, all of them except for Chansung. While Junho had never explicitly told him why exactly he wanted to quit, Chan seemed to have a general idea why he might feel like it. But whatever it was that he suspected, he didn’t dare to ask Junho about it.

Ever since what had happened inside the dream, they hadn’t progressed any further. Even though their connection was much deeper than they had expected it, they didn’t dare to give in to their feelings. After all, Junho had been clear about his intention to leave and Chansung apparently didn’t want to make it any harder than it would be anyway.

So the last day of their cooperation had come and everyone had said goodbye to Junho by now. Everyone but Chansung.

Junho had dreaded this moment more than anything, but he knew it would be inevitable, therefore. he steeled himself when he walked over to Chansung’s office. He knocked and waited to be invited in.

One last deep breath and then he walked through the door, finding the extractor standing at the window and staring out at the sunset.

“Hey…”

Chansung didn’t turn around, but whispered: “Hey…” He sighed and leaned his head against the glass.

Junho stepped closer tentatively, each step he took feeling as if he was walking further away from Chansung. “Channie…”

“I know, the time has come.” Words devoid of emotion, just spoken to keep the pain at bay and appear confident when all he wanted was to go down on his knees and beg Junho to stay.

“I’m sorry…” Junho’s voice was powerless, his eyes downcast and he allowed himself to let the sadness grab a hold of him.

A dry laughter came from Chansung before he turned around to look at the dejected looking young man in his office. This picture wasn’t right, all he wanted for Junho was to be happy and yet he looked as if someone had died.

“Don’t be, Junho. You made it abundantly clear that you wouldn’t stay with us… with me. We knew this moment would come…”

Chan sighed again, casting another look at the sunset.

“I don’t want to go…” Junho looked at him, a glint of hope in his eyes.

“You know you don’t have to. We’d love to have you here.”

“I know, but I can’t keep doing this. You know that just as well as I do.”

Chan looked back at him, nodding just once. “I know.”

They went silent for a while, just looking at each other from afar.

“Come with me, Chansung. This profession already took its toll on you. Don’t let it hurt you even more.”

The extractor laughed, but there was no humour in it. “I’m aware of it, Junho. But this is my life, I worked so hard to get to this point, sacrificed so much…”

“Even your own happiness. Was it really worth all this, Chansung?”

Junho’s eyes grew harder, a hint of stubbornness in his words. He didn’t feel like giving up on him so easily.

“I… I do not know it, Junho. But I know that I can’t just up and leave everything behind like this. I’m sorry.”

Now it was Junho’s turn to laugh humorlessly. “I see. So, that’s it, huh? Neither of us can let go of our intentions… What a pity. Well, I wish you all the best with this job, Chansung. I hope you find happiness in it…”

He was about to turn around and leave, no longer able to face this situation.

“Junho!”

A last look back at the man he had come to care about more than he wanted to admit to himself.

“What? Do you want me to beg? Because I won’t. It’s rather pointless, seeing that neither of us is ready to give up our plans. Chansung, let’s not prolong this anymore. I don’t need any more pain in my life and neither do you…”

“But just because we’re not working together anymore, doesn’t mean we can’t stay in contact.”

Chansung seemed desperate, but Junho only laughed sardonically at it. “Don’t be silly. You know how things work. We swear that we’ll stay in contact now and in a month’s time we’ll be too busy with life to keep it up. I can’t handle that. So let’s make a clean cut and hope the wound leaves a barely noticeable scar.”

“But…”

“Chansung, please don’t make it harder than it already is! Just let me go…”

Chansung’s hand stopped moving in mid air, hanging there for a couple of seconds, reaching for Junho, but the latter just shook his head.

“Please don’t.”

The hand sank then and along with it sank Chansung’s hope to ever see him again.

“Where will you go?”

Junho just shook his head again and shrugged. “I don’t know it yet. Wherever the wind carries me. I will probably stay in Korea, but I can’t promise anything.”

Chan looked down then, resignation grabbing a hold of him. His response was barely more than a whisper. “Will I ever see you again?”

I tiny smile flitted over Junho’s lips. “Maybe, if fate wants us to meet again. Promise me to live well, okay? It was a pleasure to meet you.”

The dreamscapist nodded once and turned around, hesitating just a second before he walked out of the office with sure strides.

Chansung watched him go, feeling as if his happiness went away with him.

“Thank you for everything, Junho…”

He didn’t see how Junho started running as soon as he was out of sight. He didn’t see the tears that started rolling, nor did he know how desperately Junho wanted to turn around and run back into his arms, never to let go again.

But neither did Junho see how Chansung sank down against the glass, his entire resolve going down the drain. He cried for hours until he ran out of tears, cursing himself for being too scared to let go of what he was used to.

But it didn’t matter anymore, the words had been spoken, the ties had been cut. Whatever they had had between them was gone now.


End file.
